brianthesnail96

I've always liked the classic, especially with the earlier bumpers. I've missed that boat though! Too nice for jumping in covered in oil and grime as well. MFO was owned by Dave who ran the OLLR forum, there's a few videos on YouTube as well (including the two day chassis swap). He's on here as well.

Should have kept my last one, a little dog eared cosmetically but galvanised chassis and an unusually sweet 2.25d with a good overdrive. Had this one briefly while studenting, after the run back from Plymouth to Gloucestershire (having donePlymouth- Kent and back to pick it up a couple of months previously) I decided that I really couldn't afford a 2.25p on a student budget! And this was my first car when I passed my test, still miss it! Apologies if I've posted those before, this thread is long and my memory is poor... 110 currently laid up with what I hope is a failed clutch slave cylinder. Using the red Marina as daily transport until it's fixed, it's considerably faster and much more comfortable but the heater doesn't work!

Indeed- why I've ended up with a 110, I couldn't afford a decent series. It is nice to be able to get parts easily, compared to the Marinas and even the LDV, just a shame that quality is such a gamble (something that affects other popular classics too- some of the repro Triumph bits we got for the Dolomite were shocking).

Funny how they seem to accumulate isn't it... I do like that grey series 2. Nice to see a S3 getting restored, they've been a bit Cinderellaish for too long but are definitely on the up now.

Lots of handy tips here Chaz, the building of Parkside and Slaters kits doesn't seem to be covered much online presumably because they are pretty much the bread and butter of the 7mm rolling stock world, but it's very useful to a relative newbie like me. I shall definitely be investing in some magnets, as the solvent fingerprint on the corner reinforcement of at least one of my Slater's vans proves I find getting the chamfered joints true & solid without getting solvent where I didn't want it can be a bit of a pain, three hands would be useful! I do assemble the buffers on the sprue but the 1.9mm drill for alignment is something I hadn't even considered.

I finally gave in to temptation last night and came home with a blue 'un. For such a sweet runner "out of the box" I couldn't resist. Need to decide what colour to paint it now.Currently leaning towards very dirty black. I'll be representing an A1 sold off into industry early on so looking to make some detail changes to show that. Not exactly typical but it'll make a good spare loco.

BL Special Tuning did allsorts of bits and pieces, including anti roll bars (which were standard on the front of late mk1s and both end of mk2s and mk3s), telescopic damper conversions for the front and turreted rears. They'd also sell you uprated (thicker) torsion bars and heavier duty rear springs- but most people found a set from a commercial (bars) and estate (4 leaf rear springs) in a scrapyard instead. There were a couple of other companies offering telescopic damper conversions which fitted over the lever arms, leaving them in place to support the upright. The later Itals had teles as standard replacing the lever arms completely; I've a set for my estate. There's one genuine Leyland ST built Marina left so we think (and a couple of other oddballs including the factory built V8 "custom" pick up, although it's a mess), but there's a very good replica with lots of period ST bits fitted (and a few newer niceties such as an alloy head and a type 9 gearbox).

The key with the Marina is to lift off first, throw it in then once it's settled into it's lollop put the power back on to drag it around. Basically it needs to be cornering some time before you actually reach the corner! It doesn't exactly handle well even so, but perhaps better than the reputation would suggest. The Saab you just throw it in, it feels like the wing mirror is about to hit the road and the back seat passengers end up in a heap against the window... and it sticks like the proverbial to a blanket and tracks round perfectly. I've never been in anything else quite like it.

James' is one of the V4 ones and he normally drives it in freewheel. I've no idea how a car with such skinny tyres and so much body roll goes around corners so well. It's hilarious and terrifying to be a passenger in in roughly equal measure!

This amused me- "There's also a pretty lethal fuel disengagement lever, which was quite common back then because of the fuel crisis." Erm, that would be the freewheel clutch, I'm presuming. Although it doesn't disengage the fuel and wasn't that common. Nor is it particularly lethal, a friend has one and we've done quite a lot of driving and I'm pretty sure none of us ever died, even a little bit- I'm sure I'd have remembered. I do seem to recall it is operated by a lever though... Otherwise, nice story. I'd like to get my Dad's old tractor back, but that's fairly recent history. I think he was the last owner of virtually every vehicle he owned up until I was born, when he started buying slightly less shonky modes of transportation. Like a Montego.

No- one is forcing anyone to buy one. Humanity has (more or less) survived the last however many years without an accurately liveried 7mm/ft Loadhaul 60, and I'm sure it will continue to do so. Heljan have said they can be returned for a full refund, so no one but themselves will be out of pocket (assuming retailers can return them which I'm sure they can). Welcome to reality folks...

A good (if busy) weekend at the NEC, I didn't actually go round the show despite being there from about 8.30 Thursday 'till about 19.00 Sunday- stuffed and mounted cars do nothing for me so I manned the stand. Lots of positive comments and fewer negative ones which is nice- not expecting everyone to like the cars, far from it, but this year most people were able to pass us by without making snide comments (with the possible exception of some of the other owner's clubs...). And the car made it there and back and, for something in original BL paint getting on for 40 years old, didn't look too shabby. Something of a relief...

Antics have stock of both BR liveries and are the same price as Hattons are showing for Bodiam. Have to admit a slight bias here as I'm in the same model railway group as several employees. I know they've all been out of the boxes and checked for damage too...

I think the caption referring to the coal rail swap in the first post has the numbers back to front- "The easiest part so far was to swap the coal rails from 32635 onto Ds680..." should be "to 32635 from Ds680" should it not? Hence the confusion. Ds680 will presumably gain scratchbuilt rails unless someone happens to have another full height Dapol set going spare to modify. Interesting (and inspired!) little project, looking forward to following this. I kind of fancied a "late" A1 to represent a loco sold to industry but this would probably be a bit of a convoluted way for me to get one. I'm sure Dapol will eventually do 32635 but this is a more fun (and much quicker...) way of going about it!

I last heard of it a few years ago- I've never actually seen it, despite it appearing at several events relatively locally!

Our webmaster would have loved it- he's mad keen on the early cars. Has quite a collection going (and he's younger than me). If mine makes it we should have mk1, 2 & 3 saloons this year, and a (really rather nice, certainly by Marina standards) TC Coupe.

Anyone coming along to the NEC should your path take you via the Marina club stand do drop in and say hello. I'm the youngish skinny one in serious need of a haircut...

A full packaging redesign would have taken a considerable (relatively speaking) amount of time which would have pushed the delivery of the 2nd batch even further. Which no doubt would have lead to howls of derision from certain quarters- damned if you do, damned if you don't. They appear to have made a few tweaks which don't appear to have been overly successful. They were all airfreighted in and I wonder if, had they been shipped, they would have been in a different case outer that may have provided a bit more protection. After all, the packaging used is not dissimilar to that commonly used for 4mm models so the basic concept works, just not in this particular application. It is a shame as the open wagons at least were very well packaged. Incidentally, although it holds the loco perfectly well, now I've actually done some modelling to my Ixion Fowler (Gods forbid) I don't like using the box as it's tricky to get in and out without handling parts I'd rather not handle if I can avoid it- I'll be making a transport case very similar to John's multi- Terrier transportational device for it. No slur on Ixion intended, far from it, just pointing out that you can't please all the people all the time (and it appears to perform it's primary function of securing the model in transit very well). As for chimneys and coupling rods, well no-one who actually has an engine seems to have found much to upset them too much, despite repeated promptings that they should rise up in protest, so I suspect they are perfectly acceptable to most people at this price point, perhaps with a bit of tweaking if required

Had a quick thumb through on Friday. Definitely going on the Christmas list, I got the first one when it came out and this looks every bit as good. Lots of inspiration

I think SG meant the AHBs/ lights wouldn't clear to road traffic even after the train had gone through Phil. Fair point r.e. using the phone on the crossing, although I suspect that's exactly what he did use.

I've found the second one now- my first guess was still wrong!

I know But I'm not telling... They aren't actually quite where I thought they were, but I was close enough for Google to do the rest!

For some reason it was standard practice for a time to apply a A suffix (or occasionally B suffix) to what was previously a dateless registration when that reg. was sold on, I've a feeling it was in the 80's. You can now apply for a dateless plate again if you so wish (but it will inevitably be one of the common re- reg letter combinations, I've previously had a USL and an MFO which are both fairly common), which will then be non transferable. It should have two dates on the registration document, one for when it was re registered and one stating when it was new or first registered. A true "bitsa" or kit car built some time ago should in most cases be on a Q. That doesn't mean that people didn't just slap a vaguely suitable identity on in complete disregard to the DVLA's ruling on such matters. For example somewhere in Germany is a historic registered Teal Bugatti that was imported wearing the reg number and presumably VIN plate of a Marina TC Coupe, despite only having the engine and gearbox from that car. I can say this with some certainty as some time later I acquired the rest of the car, with axle, brakes, suspension and steering all in situ so the Teal can't have been anywhere meeting the DVLA points requirement even if you ignore the requirement to use the unaltered monocoque or chassis. As said, military and other older stuff ended up on a Q plate for a time despite generally being pretty much standard vehicles. Earlier demobs got a "new" registration although I suspect it may have been down to the office dealing with the request. Quite a number of 60's military Land Rovers wearing mid 70's registrations for example, and a friend of mine has what we are sure is a late 50's Unipower that is registered as 1961 which is when we think it left the RAF. Bit harder to prove that one as no build records & chassis numbers weren't consecutive! Older tow trucks are often on Qs as they were often run on trade plates until this was outlawed (80's again I think) and the easiest way to register was on a Q. Quite a lot have now gained a "proper" age related registration in preservation.

They'll have chassis numbers etc and clearly be of a factory build, if so it's usually possible to obtain a date of build (often from the manufacturer if still extant, a lot of British stuff is archived in Gaydon etc) and as such register on an "age related" plate. I've just bought an ex military Land Rover and that was only registered for the first time last year- in that case the military were able to provide a date of manufacture for it from their records, which the DVLA accepted and registered on a 1986 "C prefix" reg. Had the previous keeper not managed to get the date from the MOD he would have managed the same through Gaydon who hold the factory build records. Admittedly this process is sometimes a little trickier if records don't exist- it used to be the case that an authorised owner's club official could provide a covering letter following an inspection that the vehicle is of an approximate year of build but after the fun and games with the Bugatti lot recently I don't know if this is still the case. The practice of just sticking a new registration on a vehicle being registered for the first time regardless of age ended some time ago, for a while they were generally Q plated but now it's nearly always an age related plate. If there is no way to verify the age of the vehicle then I believe (but don't quote me on this) they have to be put through an IVA (or whatever it's called this week) and issued with a new chassis number and current registration. In most cases this involves a fair degree of modification, as pedestrian safety, emissions etc are very harshly tested. I think it's pretty unusual for a vehicle that hasn't already been radically modified (DVLA definition) to be put through this though.

Couldn't possibly comment!